History YMMV / TaraDuncan

* RomanticPlotTumor : Starting with book 8, even [[VillainDecay Magister has forgotten his initial goal of world domination]] in favor of courting Selena. It's gotten to the point that we never even find out his secret identity... But the reader is told everything about the fair amount of {{beta couple}}s (Sparrow and Fabrice, Fafnir and Sylver, Mara and Archangel, Chem and Charm, Lisbeth and Various, Xandiar and Séné,Betty and a werewolf (and later Jar), Jeremy and Sanhexia, just to name a few).

* CanonSue: Tara herself. As stated by WordOfGod, Tara is a self-insert for the author. She is revealed to be a princess from another dimension, is the most powerful spellbinder to ever exist, is never treated as being in the wrong by the narrative, and [[DudeMagnet has new men falling for her instantly every book.]]

* ProtectionFromEditors: The books editors changed often, the first was Seuil, then Flammarion. Now they're relocated at XO. The reason was, Seuil's editors helped [[ExecutiveMeddling to fix the text]] of the first book before it was edited for the first time. Judging from the success that followed, it was maybe not a bad thing. But Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian later called them "idiots" for that. She migrated at Flammarion, faced the same problem, then came to XO where her texts are now published without any correction (including the republication of the first books, as they were originally written). And that's not for the best according to some readers as there are now grammar errors, overly long chapters and others overly shorts, etc. SAM in general have the reputation to hate any criticisms, and never read them.
* RomanticPlotTumor : Starting with book 8, even Magister tends to forget world domination in favor of courting Selena. It's gotten to the point that we never even find out his secret identity...But the reader is told everything about the fair amount of {{beta couple}}s (Sparrow and Fabrice, Fafnir and Sylver, Mara and Archangel, Chem and Charm, Lisbeth and Various, Xandiar and Séné,Betty and a werewolf (and later Jar), Jeremy and Sanhexia, just to name a few).
* SeasonalRot: Despite still being [[{{Sequelitis}} published]] to this day, the books were only popular until the TheNewTens. Since then, even [[http://gazette-du-geek.fr/tara-duncan-caricature-critique/3966 former fans started to complain]] about the SeasonalRot from the 8th book on, the waning believable [[CommonMarySueTraits "awesomeness"]] of the heroine. It seems like all new projects of adaptations are abandoned now--live action adaptations, notably.

* CanonSue: Tara herself. As stated by WordOfGod, Tara is a self-insert for the author. She is revealed to be a princess from another dimension, is the most powerful spellbinder to ever exist, and [[DudeMagnet has new men falling for her instantly every book.]]

* ProtectionFromEditors: The books editors changed often, the first was Seuil, then Flammarion. Now they're relocated at XO. The reason was, Seuil's editors helped [[ExecutiveMeddling to fix the text]] of the first book before it was edited for the first time. Judging from the success that followed, it was maybe not a bad thing. But Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian later called them "idiots" for that. She migrated at Flammarion, faced the same problem, then came to XO where her texts are now published without any correction (including the republication of the first books, as they were originally written). And that's not for the best according to some readers as there are now grammar errors, overly long chapters and others overly shorts, etc. SAM in general have the reputation to hate any criticism, and never read them.

* UnfortunateImplications : Almost every main character of the cast is described as gorgeous, which isn't a problem in itself. The only character that escapes this is Betty, Tara's best friend from Earth, a human who happens to be overweight and to need glasses to see. However in the 5th book, after she is abducted, slaved, starved and lashed, and thus loses a significant amount of weight as well as her glasses, she comes back to her parents who notice she is now a "gorgeous young lady". She then regain her weight and marries Jar, whom everyone praise for taking interested in a less than standart beauty. All in all, a very dangerous message to be portraying in books mostly read by young teens.

* CanonSue : As the story progresses, Tara, who was already super powerful from the start, gains more and more magical abilities or attributes no other character possess, to the point that any threat should become laughable and be rid off rather easily. She's also worshiped by all and those who don't worship her end up being bad guys somehow. Every single attractive boy of the cast falls in love or wants to bang her at some point, and eventually settles down with one of her friends only ''after'' she has rejected them - and that only happens after a good amount of sexual tension with each and every one. To add to this, Tara considers it an insult to be called perfect or special, which happens ''very'' often, and constantly complain about her powerful magic, which angers both Angelica and Fabrice, who would - and actually did, with minimal success - sacrifice anything to have a tenth of the powers she keeps showing off and which always save the day. [[spoiler: Even when it is revealed that genetic engineering is the source of her powers, Jeremy, who underwent the ''exact same procedure'' is explicitly described as slightly weaker than her even with the help of the Sentient Gem. He is vain and becomes irrelevant after the 5th and 6th books despite being the second strongest spellbinder in universe, as if to avoid him taking away attention from the heroine.]]

* SeasonalRot: Despite still being [[{{Sequelitis}} published]] to this day, the books were only popular until the TheNewTens. Since then, even [[http://gazette-du-geek.fr/tara-duncan-caricature-critique/3966 former fans started to complain]] about the SeasonalRot from the 8th book on, the waning believable [[CommonMarySueTraits "awesomeness"]] of the heroine, and [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop family-unfriendly aesops]] above. It seems like all new projects of adaptations are abandoned now--live action adaptations, notably.

* CanonSue : As the story progresses, Tara, who was already super powerful from the start, gains more and more magical abilities or attributes no other character possess, to the point that any threat should become laughable and be rid off rather easily. She's also worshipped by all and those who don't end up being bad guys somehow. Every single attractive boy of the cast falls in love or wants to bang her at some point, and eventually settles down with one of her friends only ''after'' she has rejected them - and that only happens after a good amount of sexual tension. To add to this, Tara considers it an insult to be called perfect or special, which happens ''very'' often, and constantly complain about her powerful magic, which angers both Angelica and Fabrice, who would - and actually did, with minimal success - sacrifize anything to have a tenth of the powers she keeps showing off and which always save the day. [[spoiler: Even when it is revealed that genetic engineering is the source of her powers, Jeremy, who underwent the ''exact same procedure'' is explicitly described as slightly weaker than her even without the help of the Sentient Gem. He is vain and becomes irrelevant after the 5th and 6th books despite being the second strongest spellbinder in universe, as if to avoid him detracting attention from the heroine.]]
* UnfortunateImplications : Almost every main character of the cast is described as georgous, which isn't a problem in itself. The only character that escapes this is Betty, Tara's best friend from Earth, a human who happens to be overweight and to need glasses to see. However in the 5th book, after she is abducted, slaved, starved and lashed, and thus loses a significant amount of weight as well as her glasses, she comes back to her parents who notice she is now a "gorgeous young lady". She then regain her weight and marries Jar, whom everyone praise for taking interested in a less than standart beauty. All in all, a very dangerous message to be portraying in books mostly read by young teens.
* RomanticPlotTumor : Starting with book 8, even Magister tends to forget world domination in favor of courting Selena. It's gotten to the point that we won't even find out his secret identity...But the reader won't ignore anything about the fair amount of {{beta couple}}s (Sparrow and Fabrice, Fafnir and Sylver, Mara and Archangel, Chem and Charm, Lisbeth and Various, Xandiar and Séné,Betty and a werewolf (and later Jar), Jeremy and Sanhexia, just to name a few).
* SeasonalRot: Despite still being [[{{Sequelitis}} published]] to this day, books were very popular until the TheNewTens. Since then, even [[http://gazette-du-geek.fr/tara-duncan-caricature-critique/3966 former fans started to complain]] about the SeasonalRot from the 8th book on, the waning believable [[CommonMarySueTraits "awesomeness"]] of the heroine, and [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop family-unfriendly aesops]] above. It seems like all new projects of adaptations are abandoned now--live action adaptations, notably.

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* RomanticPlotTumor : Starting with book 8, even Magister tends to forget world domination in favor of courting Selena. To the point, we will not even find out his secret identity...But the reader won't ignore anything about the fair amount of {{beta couple}}s (Sparrow and Fabrice, Fafnir and Sylver, Mara and Archangel, Chem and Charm, Lisbeth and Various, Xandiar and Séné,Betty and a werewolf and later Jar, Jeremy and Sanhexia, just to name a few).
* SeasonalRot: Despite still [[{{Sequelitis}} published]] to this day, books were very popular until the TheNewTens. Since then, even [[http://gazette-du-geek.fr/tara-duncan-caricature-critique/3966 former fans started to complain]] about the SeasonalRot from the 8th book on, the less and less believable [[CommonMarySueTraits "awesomeness"]] of the heroine, and FamilyUnfriendlyAesop above. Seems like, as a result, all new projects of adaptation are abandoned by now- live-action adaptations, notably.

* {{Anvilicious}}: You would think Tara would stop being over-protective of Fabrice since the entire cast seems to have a constant urge to tell her to do so every five seconds. Ironically, it doubles as a BrokenAesop since the episode's conflict could have been avoided if Tara was more involved.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: Regarding [[spoiler: Sparrow ending with Fabrice, while Tara dumped Robin for Cal]]. Robin was a correct, [[SeductionProofMarriage faithful]] boyfriend, [[spoiler: except perhaps when he was [[IdiotBall fooled]] [[BedTrick by a shape shifting girl demon who looked like Tara]].]] But it was not exactly his fault as [[ToiletSeatDivorce he couldn't sense the difference]]. In the meantime, [[spoiler:Fabrice did a temporary FaceHeelTurn, and during it [[NotBrainwashed obeyed Magister]] by [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing]] [[ATasteOfTheLash willingly]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown and with his own hands]] his girlfriend Sparrow. They broke up (twice) but she finally got back to him.]] The apparent aesop? [[spoiler: A girl will dump you for your best friend if you're {{nice|Guy}}, and keep you if [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys you're nasty]].]] It remains a [[FridgeHorror chilling sensation]] of a celebration of DomesticAbuse.